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Spanish Adjectives

Adjectives are words that go with the noun to modify or qualify the meaning adding more information or detail making it different to the others and more specific. The most important adjectives are the qualifying adjectives. Examples of this type of adjectives are pequeño (small), azul (blue) or beautiful (bonito). These are the group that we are going to study in this section.

Adjectives agree in number

As we saw, every word around the noun has to agree in number. In other words, if the noun is singular, the adjective should be singular as well. This is a very important thing for the English speakers because adjectives in English are invariable, remain the same form in plural or singular.

Adjectives agree in gender

Adjectives need to agree in gender with the verb they are associated. That is to say if the noun is masculine the adjective that qualifies has to be masculine or in the opposite case, if it is a feminine noun the adjective needs to be feminine as well.

– Adjectives of nationality ending in consonant adding an –a:

Position of the adjective

Spanish adjectives may be before or after the nouns they modify, depending on various factors. But, in general we can say that the most common position is after the noun, that means, in the opposite position that we find them in English language. Generally speaking, we can say that descriptive adjectives follow nouns usually, while limiting adjectives (such as demonstrative, indefinite, etc.) precede nouns.

Un coche negro (a black car)

Un día soleado (a sunny day)

Shortened forms of adjectives

Adjectives usually go after the noun but sometimes there are other cases when the adjective goes before the noun. In these cases, the adjective is frequently modified loosing the last vowel or syllable. Even, sometimes this modified adjectives that go before the noun can change their meaning. We will see a few examples to illustrate this:

Comparison of adjectives

Adjectives have two degrees of comparison: comparative and superlative.

Comparative

We use the comparative degree when comparing two objects, persons, or ideas.a comparative adjective. To form a comparative adjective, in Spanish, you have to use más (more) or menos (less) or tan (the same):

The absolute superlative

The absolute superlative is used to intensify the quality of the adjective. It is formed by “muy” (very) + adjective or by adding -ísimo, -ísima, -ísimos, or -ísimas to the adjective or adverb. If the adjective ends in a vowel, you have to remove the vowel before attaching the endings. The absolute superlative does not strictly compare one thing to another, but states “a greater amount of”. This can be translated into English by placing “very” before the adjective or adverb.

We hope we helped with this Spanish lesson . If there is anything about the adjectives in this post that you think is not correct please send us an e-mail. We tried to cover as much as we could in order to give you a good start with this. (Spanish info)

In Spanish, some possessive adjectives are used after the noun, and they must agree in number (singular or plural) and gender with the item possessed.

Here is a list of the Spanish possessive adjectives that are used after the noun:

mí (-a, -os, -as) mine, of mine

tuyo (-a, -os, -as) yours, of yours

suyo (-a, -os, -as) yours, of yours, his, of his

hers, of hers

nuestro (-a, -os, -as) ours, of ours

vuestro (-a, -os, -as) yours, of yours

suyo (-a, -os, -as) yours, of yours, theirs, of theirs

Examples:

Un amigo mío vive in Londres.

A friend of mine lives in London

Una amiga mía está en España.

A friend of mine is in Spain

Los cafés son nuestros.

The coffes are ours.

Conocí a un primo suyo.

I met a cousin of his

Quiere el mí­o.

He wants mine.

Perdieron los nuestros.

They lost ours.

Possessive pronouns in Spanish

Possessive pronouns are the words used to replace nouns modified by possessive adjectives. In Spanish, there are different forms of possessive pronouns depending on if the noun is masculine or feminine, singular or plural.

Mine: el mío / la mí­a / los míos / las mí­as

Yours: el tuyo / la tuya / los tuyos / las tuyas

His / Her / Its/: el suyo / la suya / los suyos / las suyas

Ours: el nuestro / la nuestra / las nuestras / los nuestros

Yours: el vuestro / la vuestra / los vuestros / las vuestras

Theirs: el suyo / la suya / los suyos / las suyas

Note that the Spanish possessive pronouns for third person singular (él, ella) and plural (ellos, ellas) are identical. Sometimes Spanish speakers need to clarify what they men to avoid misunderstanding in these cases.

There are two important things to know about Spanish possessive pronouns:

The possessive pronoun must match the noun being replaced in gender and number.

You should use the appropriate definite article.

Here you have some examples:

Mi padre está aquí ¿dónde está el tuyo?

My father is here; where’s yours?

Me gustan salir con mis amigos y ella prefiere con los suyos.

I like going out with my friends and she prefers hers.

Tus cuadros son buenos, pero los míos son mejores.

Your paintings are good, but mine are better.

Estos libros ¿son vuestros o nuestros?

These books, are they yours or ours?

No sé donde está el tuyo, pero el mío es este

I don´t know where is yours but this one is mine

Mis padres no pueden, llama a los suyos

My parents can´t make it, call his / hers/ theirs

Note that Spanish possessive pronouns are identical to stressed form possessive adjectives, but their usage is different: possessive pronouns replace nouns, while possessive adjectives modify nouns.

Neuter possessive

There is also a neuter possessive pronoun which is used when the possessed thing is abstract or unspecific object. This is formed with the neuter article -lo- plus the masculine singular possessive pronoun (mí­o, tuyo, suyo, nuestro, vuestro).

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